DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action: A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness . Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shimizu (US 4,588,453), and further in view of JP’522 (JPS 61-284522). Regarding claim 1, Shimizu teaches a method of manufacturing a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet, comprising : heating a steel slab, hot rolling the heated steel slab to obtain a hot-rolled steel sheet, subjecting the hot-rolled steel sheet to cold rolling once or twice with intermediate annealing performed therebetween, subjecting the cold-rolled steel sheet to decarburization annealing, applying an annealing separator to a surface of the cold-rolled steel sheet after the decarburization annealing, and subjecting the cold-rolled steel sheet applied with the annealing separator to final annealing (Col 3, Ln 49 to Col 5, Ln 36) . Shimizu discloses heating the steel slab comprises a first heating to 900-1230 ºC in a gas firing type furnace and a second heating to 1250-1380 ºC with example temperatures of 1330-1360 ºC in a n induction heating furnace , wherein an oxygen concentration in an atmosphere in the second heating process is 1.0 vol% or less (Abstract; Col 2, Ln 40-61). Shimizu further discloses that the time from the end of the first heating process to the start of the second heating process is 3 minutes (i.e. 180 seconds) (Col 6, Ln 5 to Col 6, Ln 50) . Shimizu does not explicitly disclose that a surface of the steel slab for grain-oriented electrical steel sheet is subjected to water cooling at a cooling rate of 3.0 °C/s or higher after the second heating process and before the hot rolling as recited in claim 1 . JP’522 teaches a method of making a grain oriented electrical steel that is analogous to the method disclosed by Shimizu ( Abstract). JP’522 discloses that in order to improve surface property and magnetic properties of the steel sheets, a scale remov al step is performed by water cool ing the slab at a cooling rate of 3 ºC/s or higher after the slab heating step and before the hot rolling step (Abstract; Page 4-6). Thus, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to cool the slab with water at a cooling rate of 3 ºC/s or higher after the slab heating and before the hot rolling as taught by JP’522 in the process of Shimizu in order to make a steel sheet having excellent surface property and magnetic properties as disclosed by JP’522. Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shimizu (US 4,588,453) in view of JP’522 (JPS 61-284522), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of JP’781 (JP 2005-177781A). Regarding claim 2, Shimizu discloses that the first heating is conducted in a gas firing type furnace and the second heating is conducted in a n induction heating furnace (Abstract). Shimizu in view of JP’522 does not explicitly disclose that the steel slab for grain-oriented electrical steel sheet is arranged so that an under surface of the steel slab for grain-oriented electrical steel sheet in the first heating process is not an under surface in the second heating process . JP’781 teaches a method for making a grain-oriented steel sheet comprising heating the slab, hot rolling the slab, followed by cold rolling and annealing ([0013] to [0060]). JP’781 discloses that the first heating is conducted in a gas heating furnace , then the slab is turned by 90º so that the widthwise end of the slab (side surface) faces down and inserted in to the induction heating furnace for a second heating process ([0021]). JP’781 further discloses that the method of heating ensures a uniform heating across the width direction ([0017]). Thus, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to turn the slab by 90º after gas heating step so that the widthwise end of the slab (side surface) faces down and inserted into the induction heating furnace for a second heating process as taught by JP’781 in the process of Shimizu in view of JP’522 in order to heat the slab uniformly across the width direction as disclosed by JP’781. Turning the slab by 90º so that the side face faces down meets the recited limitation that an under surface of the steel slab in the first heating process is not an under surface in the second heating process . Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT Xiaowei Su whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-3239 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT 8:00-5:00 . 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Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /XIAOWEI SU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1733